COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – With the 2025-26 season complete, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) announced its final monthly honors for the year on Wednesday with three Pioneers and a Bulldog earning March/April accolades.
 
All four NCHC monthly honorees for March/April put together outstanding postseasons, with the National Champions collecting three of the four awards:

• Forward – Zam Plante, Minnesota Duluth
• Defenseman – Garrett Brown, Denver
• Goaltender – Johnny Hicks, Denver
• Rookie – Clarke Caswell, Denver

Hicks gloves NCHC Goaltender of the Month for the second straight month after also earning it for February. Denver finishes the season taking home four of the six NCHC Goalie of the Month awards in 2025-26 (two by Quentin Miller, two by Hicks). These are the first career NCHC monthly honors for Plante, Brown and Caswell.
 
All four NCHC honorees are now eligible for Hockey Commissioners Association (HCA) national March/April monthly awards, which will be announced on Thursday, April 16.

FORWARD OF THE MONTH
Zam Plante, Minnesota Duluth
Sophomore Forward
Hermantown, Minn.
 
Plante finished the season on a seven-game point streak, helping the Bulldogs reach the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship Game and the NCAA Albany Region Final. The Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick led all NCHC skaters with 10 points in March, tying for first nationally in the postseason, while averaging 1.67 points per game. Plante scored four goals and added six assists in only six games, both of which tied for first in the NCHC in the postseason. He recorded at least a point in all six games in March, including two multi-goal games and a trio of multi-point outings.
 
Plante started the NCHC Tournament on fire, scoring the game-tying and overtime game-winning goals both nights in an NCHC Quarterfinal series sweep of St. Cloud State on March 6-7. The Third-Team All-NCHC honoree then dished out an assist in both the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals (March 14 in a win at North Dakota) and Championship Game, when UMD fell in double overtime to Denver. With four goals and six points in the NCHC Tournament, Plante was named to the Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team.
 
In the NCAA Tournament, Plante handed out three assists in the Albany Regional, with one coming in the win over Penn State on March 27 and two more in a 4-3 regional final loss to No. 1 Michigan. He finished the postseason with 28 shots on goal, second in the NCHC in March, a +6 plus/minus, and 72 faceoff wins.
 
Plante ended his sophomore season tied for fifth nationally and second in the NCHC (behind his brother and Hobey Baker Award winner, Max) with a career-high 51 points, averaging 1.28 points per game. He scored 20 goals and dished out 31 assists this year, which tied for second in the NCHC and seventh nationally. Plante committed only one penalty all season and compiled a +16 plus/minus while firing 150 shots on goal.

DEFENSEMAN OF THE MONTH
Garrett Brown, Denver
Junior Defenseman
San Jose, Calif.
 
Brown played a huge role in helping Denver win both the NCHC Frozen Faceoff and NCAA National Championship. In five postseason games, the Winnipeg Jets draft pick handed out five assists to average a point per game, while also blocking 11 shots and firing 12 shots on goal. His +10 plus/minus in March and April tied for the NCAA lead with teammate Cale Ashcroft, while he did not commit a penalty all postseason. Brown entered the postseason with only nine points on the year, but recorded a pair of multi-assist outings in two championship games.
 
After missing the NCHC Quarterfinals and Frozen Faceoff Semifinals with an upper body injury, Brown returned to the Denver lineup for the Frozen Faceoff Championship Game on March 21 and handed out two helpers, including on the double-overtime game-winning goal to defeat Minnesota Duluth and win the National Cup.
 
In the NCAA Frozen Four on April 9, he had the primary assist on the late, game-tying goal in an eventual double-overtime win over Michigan. Brown then saved his best for last, setting up both Denver goals in the National Championship. He tallied the primary assist on the game-tying goal in the third period and another helper on the game-winner as DU won its 11th national title with a 2-1 win over Wisconsin on April 11.
 
Brown finished the season with a career-high 14 points on two goals and 12 assists in 34 games. He also totaled 30 blocked shots, more than a third of which came in the postseason, and posted a +12 plus/minus on the year.

GOALTENDER OF THE MONTH
Johnny Hicks, Denver
Freshman Goaltender
Kamloops, B.C.
 
Hicks earned his second-straight NCHC Goaltender of the Month honor after backstopping the Pioneers to the 2026 NCHC Frozen Faceoff title on home ice and NCAA National Championship in Las Vegas, finishing the year on a 13-game winning streak. The 5-foot-10 undrafted freshman was nearly flawless in the postseason, going 8-0-0 while leading the NCHC with both a .956 save percentage and a 1.24 goals-against average in March and April. The save percentage and GAA both ranked second nationally in the postseason, as well, while he logged two shutouts in March. Hicks totaled 241 saves in the postseason, tops in the NCAA, averaging more than 30 saves per game in March and April.
 
Hicks racked up the awards in the postseason, earning Most Outstanding Player of the 2026 NCHC Frozen Faceoff, the NCAA Loveland Regional and the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four. He was named to the All-Tournament Team for all three postseason events, as well. Hicks opened the NCHC Frozen Faceoff with a 23-save shutout of Miami on March 6, before making 38 saves in a 2-1 overtime win over Western Michigan in the semifinals a week later. Hicks made a then-career-high 41 saves in the Frozen Faceoff Championship to help DU defeat UMD, 4-3, for the title on March 21.
 
Hicks also started the NCAA Tournament with a shutout, blanking Cornell with 24 saves on March 27. In the Frozen Four, the freshman was at his best, racking up a career-high 49 saves in a 4-3, double-overtime win over No. 1 Michigan on April 9. In the National Championship two days later, Hicks turned aside 29 of 30 shots faced to lead Denver to a 2-1 win over Wisconsin and its third NCAA crown in five years.
 
Hicks finished the season undefeated at 16-0-1 while setting the NCAA single-season record with a .957 save percentage, surpassing Maine’s Jimmy Howard (.956) in 2004. Hicks’ 1.19 goals-against average is also an NCHC single-season record (minimum 500 minutes played) and ranks third all-time in NCAA history. He compiled three shutouts on the season, as well, after taking over the Denver net in late January.

ROOKIE OF THE MONTH
Clarke Caswell, Denver
Freshman Forward
Brandon, Manitoba
 
Caswell came up clutch for Denver in the postseason, totaling nine points in eight games to lead all NCHC rookies and tie for first among NCAA freshmen in points in March/April. The Seattle Kraken draft pick scored four goals and added five assists, with the four goals tying for the NCHC and NCAA rookie lead in the postseason. Caswell posted a +7 plus/minus in March and April to lead NCAA rookies, while winning 70 faceoffs, tying for first among NCAA freshmen.
 
Caswell recorded points in six of his eight postseason games, including three multi-point outings. After notching a goal and an assist in an NCHC Quarterfinal sweep of Miami, Caswell tallied a goal and an assist in the Frozen Faceoff Championship against Minnesota Duluth on March 21, including the primary assist on the double-overtime game-winning goal on home ice.
 
In the NCAA Tournament, Caswell logged another goal and assist in a 5-0 shutout of Cornell on March 27, while chipping in his second assist of the weekend in a win over Western Michigan to book a trip to the Frozen Four. Caswell was named to the Loveland Region All-Tournament Team for his three-point weekend. In the Frozen Four Semifinals against Michigan on April 9, he again recorded a goal and an assist, with his goal tying the game late in the third period at 3-3 as DU went on to win in double overtime.
 
Caswell finished the season with 34 points on eight goals and 26 assists, ranking fourth on the Pioneers in scoring. His 26 assists were second among NCHC freshmen this season, while his 34 points tied for second among NCHC rookies and 17th among all NCHC skaters.
 
OTHER NOMINEES:
 
Forward of the Month
Rieger Lorenz, Denver
Grant Slukynsky, Western Michigan
Will Zellers, North Dakota
 
Defenseman of the Month
Ty Hanson, Minnesota Duluth
Samuel Sjolund, Western Michigan
 
Goaltender of the Month
Hampton Slukynsky, Western Michigan
Jan Špunar, North Dakota

Rookie of the Month
Bobby Cowan, Western Michigan, F
Jan Špunar, North Dakota, G